Sunday, August 14, 2011

Road Trip! Woooooo!

We left for Utah at 4:00 in the morning on July 23rd. We left home at this ridiculous hour to avoid spending six hours in traffic between home and Sacramento. We were also hoping that we would put our kids in the car and since it was dark outside, they would go right back to sleep. We were mistaken. We put everything else in the car and then got Jared out of his crib and put him straight into the car. By the time we pulled out of the driveway, Jared had both hands in the air and was yelling, "Road trip! Woooo!" This went on for three hours. It was a long day of driving with a lot of stops. We had Jared all geared up to go to Utah on our road trip, so when he fell asleep in eastern Nevada and woke up as we were driving through the salt flats, we excitedly told him that we were in Utah. He looked sleepily out the window at the barren landscape and said, "More go another Utah." I don't really blame him. He perked up when we got to Uncle Von and Aunt Patty's house in Orem, and he discovered that they have a "park" behind their house, complete with a swing and a slide.

I had thought we would spend the rest of the weekend relaxing in Orem, but relaxing was not to be on this trip. After church and naps on Sunday, we went to dinner with our friends the Christensens. Cambell was excited to show Todd a new board game he found, and Grant was wildly excited to play with Jared. Thanks for a delicious dinner, Rebecca!

After dinner we went back to Von and Patty's house where we found the monthly Jolley birthday party in full swing. It was great to spend a few minutes catching up with cousins.

On Monday morning, we drove to Salt Lake to meet my family at the Pioneer Day parade. We got stuck in Utah's version of a traffic jam on the way to the parade. It resembled non-rush hour traffic on the 101 freeway in the bay area, which sort of made us want to move. The parade was as great as ever, complete with a float breaking down and spouting smoke right in front of us. Todd thought this was the most exciting part of the parade, but I seem to remember it being sort of a regular event in this particular parade. Jared was most excited about seeing "pioneers" (another family home evening success!). Eloise slept through 90% of the parade. I was most excited to see all of my sisters and my brother, my mom, and my cute nephew, Aaron. The weather was unexpectedly cool and overcast, making for a great parade watching experience.

After the parade, we drove to Murray to have lunch with my grandparents. Jared was delighted to find another "park" backyard.
After lunch we went to see Alan and his new wife, Kaity, at their home in Draper. I was determined to get a picture of them, since I didn't manage it at their wedding, but of course I totally forgot. They introduced us to Numberwang, which is not at all worth watching, but I highly recommend it.

Jared fell asleep in the car on our way back to Murray, and he had been really short on sleep since we left home, so we decided to keep driving all of the way to Logan.

We spent a little time catching up with the family while Anni and Ryan made a delicious dutch oven dinner for us.

Aaron was fascinated with Jared and spent a lot of time following him around.

Jared was not such a fan of Aaron's show-love-through-contact approach. I'm sure they will be much better friends when their nap schedules stop conflicting so completely.

On Tuesday we took things relatively easy. Our only activity was a trip to Logan's Willow Park Zoo, which is very small. A lot of the animals there are rescued animals that could not safely survive in the wild, including a bald eagle. It was extremely hot. The little boys were a little bit wild and not too enthusiastic about looking at animals. Aaron fell and bit his cheek, and shortly thereafter we made an early exit.

When Aaron and Jared saw the playground adjoining the zoo they were suddenly not so tired.

On Wednesday, we took Jordanne, our host in Logan, out to lunch. We owe her and the Burgess and Wright families a lot for letting us take advantage of their hospitality in Logan. Thanks for everything!

Later, Cheyenne and I took Annika shopping for maternity clothes. It was so much fun to go shopping with my sisters. I remembered again why I really don't like shopping alone. Cheyenne and I cleared off the racks of maternity clothes and Annika tried things on. We shared all of our sisterly wisdom and advice on her fashion choices and had a great time. How often do you get to buy a whole new wardrobe for anyone? We bought her her basic wardrobe for the next 6+ months until new niece or nephew Jensen arrives.

We had hoped to go to Bear Lake while we were in Logan, but in the end there were too many conflicts, so we decided to go to first dam and pretend that we were at Bear Lake. We did that on Thursday. Jared had a great time playing in the frigid water. Ryan, Faith, and I jumped off the bridge into the shockingly cold current. Don't be too impressed. The bridge is about four feet above the water. Our friends, the Christensens, met us at first dam and Jared and Grant played in the water together for a while.

Later, we had a cookout up Logan canyon. Family, friends, fire, and food: our recipe for a good time and some very dirty babies.

The Knights and the Christensens spent the night camping in the canyon. The Knights slept like the lazy slugs we are. Eloise especially slept like she has been camping all of her life. The Christensens did not sleep at all.

Here is our early morning camping portrait. I have awesome camping hair.

Eloise went back to sleep, and Rebecca needed a little sleep after being up all night, so Cambell and I took the boys to look at the Logan River.

Jared and Grant could have spent all day pulling leaves off of plants and throwing them into the current from the bridge. We all had a really great time. Cambell and Rebecca made us breakfast and we planned our next camping adventure before we headed off on our skydiving adventure. . .